greatest simplicity, manliness, and bravery, the Greeks and Romans appear to have lived almost entirely on plain vegetable preparations; and at the present time bread, fruits, and roots, constitute the chief nourishment of the Italians, and of the mass of the population of Southern Europe.

233. The Lazzaroni of Naples, are a tall, stout, wellformed, robust, and active class of people; and yet subsist chiefly on coarse bread and potatoes; and their drink of luxury is a glass of iced water, slightly acidulated.

234. In France, a vegetable diet prevails to a very great extent. M. Dupin informs us, that two-thirds of the French people, to this day, are wholly deprived of animal food; and live on chesnuts, or maize, or potatoes. The peasantry of Norway, Sweden, Russia, Denmark, Poland, Germany, Turkey, Greece, Switzerland, Spain, Portugal, and of almost every other country in Europe, subsist principally, and most of them entirely, on vegetable food.

235. The inhabitants of Asia and Africa are compelled, by their climate, to refrain in great measure from animal food. The Persians, Hindoos, Burmese, Chinese, Japanese, the inhabitants of the East India Archipelago and of the mountains of Himalayah, and (in fact) most of the Asiatics, live upon vegetable productions. It has been maintained by Dr. Van Cooth (no vegetable-eater himself), in a learned medical dissertation, that the great body of the ancient Egyptians and Persians "confined themselves to a vegetable diet"; and the Egyptians of the present day, as well as the Negroes (whose great bodily powers are well known); live chiefly on vegetable sub

stances.

The Mexican Indians and South-Sea Islanders, were formerly remarkable for their great temperance, and attachment to a vegetable diet; but they have recently been corrupted, by the introduction of European customs. I might greatly extend the list of those who subsist upon vegetable productions; but as they will be hereafter referred to, the mention of them here is unnecessary. It has been observed, that "from two-thirds to threefourths of the whole human family, from the creation of the species to the present moment, have subsisted entirely, or nearly so, on vegetable food; and always, when their alimentary supplies of this kind have been abundant and of a good quality, and their habits have been in other respects correct, they have been well nourished, and well sustained in all the physiological interests of their nature." 236. But it is not a sufficient recommendation of a vegetable diet to show, that it has been adopted by nations as well as individuals. I shall therefore now

point out a few of the many advantages of an exclusive adoption of it.

CHAPTER III.

FRUITS AND FARINACEA CONDUCIVE TO HEALTH.

O beata sanitas! te præsente amoenum

Ver floret gratiis, absque te nemo beatus.

237. A PHILOSOPHICAL friend once remarked to me", says Dr. Combe, "that he never considered himself to be in complete health, except when he was able to place his feet firmly on the turf, his hands hanging carelessly by his side, and his eyes wandering over space; and, thus circumstanced, to feel such agreeable sensations arising in his merely bodily frame, that he could raise his mind to heaven, and thank God that he was a living man." This is probably as brief and as correct a description of health, as can be given; for the man in perfect health will possess that buoyancy of feeling, good humour, and satisfaction, which never fail to accompany the human organism, when all the functions are in order: then may a man, with truth, exclaim-"Vivere ipsa voluptas!" To acquire and preserve this equable and regular discharge of the various functions of the body, requires an originally good development of the organs, or constitutional stamina; and a strict fulfilment of the physiological laws of our

nature.

238. These, however, we are not called upon to consider, except so far as diet is concerned; in reference to which it may be observed, that all food is both nutritive and stimulative; and upon the relative proportion of these two qualities, in any article of diet, depends its power of producing the "juste millieu" of existence. If the stimulating property be in excess, the functions are abnormally accelerated, life flies too fast, pleasurable feelings are vivid but evanescent, and disease is frequently the result. If the nutritive properties prevail, the functions are sluggishly performed, a stupid state of indifference creeps over the frame, life is passed without animation, and actual pleasure appears to be unknown. There seems however no reason to doubt, that each article of food (while in the state in which nature provides it) contains that just proportion of the two qualities, which is requisite for the healthy discharge of the functions of the animal, for the use of which it was provided, and the organs of which are in strict relation to the condition of its food. But if a diet be adopted by any animal, materially different from that to the digestion and assimilation of which its organs are strictly adapted, though the new food contain all the chemical elements necessary for the due nourishment of the animal, it is possible their mechanical combination— upon which, probably, the nutritive and stimulative qualities depend-may be such, as to prevent its perfect assimilation. All animals do not require the same degree of stimulation for the attainment of that state of perfection of which their nature renders them susceptible;

and, consequently, the food that may be admirably adapted to the wants and necessities of one, may be quite inadequate to the due development of another.

239. Now, though grain and other vegetables contain the same proximate principles as the flesh of animals, (namely, albumen, fibrin, and casein,) yet these must be in a different state of combination in the two kinds of diet: for it is universally admitted, and daily experience proves the fact, that animal food is much more stimulating than vegetable food; and if the latter contains such a proportion of the stimulative quality as is sufficient to maintain man in perfect health, then every additional degree of stimulation-whether derived from the flesh of animals, or from such articles as are stimulative without being nutritious (as spirits, wine, &c.)-must be injurious to health. But, as slight deviations from health are little noticed, and as the seeds of disease are generally sown long before any serious attack is experienced, few refer their complaints to the real causes, and usually blame any little indiscretion which immediately precedes actual pain. It was well observed by Hippocrates, that "diseases do not fall upon men instantaneously; but being collected by slow degrees, they explode with accumulated force." Hence it is that none, except those who have paid great attention to the subject, are ever led to suspect, that the flesh which they and others are daily in the habit of eating, can be in any way connected with their sufferings.

240. It may be shown,-both from the opinions of medical writers, and from numerous well attested examples,—